So, a couple friends and I went in on a Shotkam. Luck being what it is, I get to be the one to figure it all out. The first couple times out with it seemed to go well with few issues. Today I went out and had changed some settings...It didn't work out very well. At least I got some decent footage, not nearly as much as I had hoped for. It's not perfect, mainly my shooting, but it is something to learn from...

_________________"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed"

McFarmer the aperture ( crosshairs ) are user adjustable.... you position the shotgun and aim it at a spot( I usually pick one 20 yards away but the user could pick any distance they want. Once you have the gun setup and POA is selected you then use your smartphone to move the aperture to the shotguns point of aim. How well one makes this adjustment the more one can get from its position and speed at the time of the shot.

Inshort what you see on shotkam videos are dependant on how the user settings are set up and can have little to do with if the actual gun is shooting high, low, left or right....if I set the aperture below my guns actual POI it will appear it shoots high or visa versa. Same for left or right....

I watched the video just once and it appeared to me that the crosshair (X) was pretty much on the expected POI. I'm not saying that the shooter put the X exactly where it should have been on every shot, but he did so on most of them.

On some of the shots, I might have put the X in a slightly different place than the OP, but overall I thought he did pretty well. He might need to stay in the gun just a little longer after taking the shot, but otherwise I thought it looked pretty good.

One thing to keep in mind is that the majority of the targets were what I call "loopers" and he shot them after they had peaked and were on their way down. If he had shot directly at them, he would likely have missed over the top (and behind). In fact, I think that's exactly what he did on one of the shots near the end.

Good video. Thanks.

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McFarmer the aperture ( crosshairs ) are user adjustable.... you position the shotgun and aim it at a spot( I usually pick one 20 yards away but the user could pick any distance they want. Once you have the gun setup and POA is selected you then use your smartphone to move the aperture to the shotguns point of aim. How well one makes this adjustment the more one can get from its position and speed at the time of the shot.

Inshort what you see on shotkam videos are dependant on how the user settings are set up and can have little to do with if the actual gun is shooting high, low, left or right....if I set the aperture below my guns actual POI it will appear it shoots high or visa versa. Same for left or right....

Thanks for that. Interesting technology.

So the next question is could you use a laser bore sighter to align the cam with the bore ?

No, it was just me. This was at a fun shoot and I didn't get as much video as I hoped for.I think I'm learning equally from the hits and the misses.

Ulysses wrote:

I watched the video just once and it appeared to me that the crosshair (X) was pretty much on the expected POI. I'm not saying that the shooter put the X exactly where it should have been on every shot, but he did so on most of them.

On some of the shots, I might have put the X in a slightly different place than the OP, but overall I thought he did pretty well. He might need to stay in the gun just a little longer after taking the shot, but otherwise I thought it looked pretty good.

One thing to keep in mind is that the majority of the targets were what I call "loopers" and he shot them after they had peaked and were on their way down. If he had shot directly at them, he would likely have missed over the top (and behind). In fact, I think that's exactly what he did on one of the shots near the end.

Good video. Thanks.

From the video it's sometimes hard to tell the exact trajectory of the target. There were some loopers, but there was a good variety of presentations. Some were launched from a good distance away and I waited on them....I seem to shoot dropping targets better than raising ones...Just a D class shooter, what can I say

McFarmer wrote:

Jim DE wrote:

McFarmer the aperture ( crosshairs ) are user adjustable.... you position the shotgun and aim it at a spot( I usually pick one 20 yards away but the user could pick any distance they want. Once you have the gun setup and POA is selected you then use your smartphone to move the aperture to the shotguns point of aim. How well one makes this adjustment the more one can get from its position and speed at the time of the shot.

Inshort what you see on shotkam videos are dependant on how the user settings are set up and can have little to do with if the actual gun is shooting high, low, left or right....if I set the aperture below my guns actual POI it will appear it shoots high or visa versa. Same for left or right....

Thanks for that. Interesting technology.

So the next question is could you use a laser bore sighter to align the cam with the bore ?

I guess you could use a laser bore sighter for alignment, I'm not sure how accurate it would be.I do as Jim DE stated...I put the bead on a target about 25yds away then adjust the reticle to that point. Doing it this way should give a good representation of the bead to target relationship.

_________________"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed"

Mc Farmer, I guess you could use a bore sighter but I don't think when dealing with a shotgun and various patterns they shoot it does not need to be that exact.

One word of caution and I don't know if the new model has the laser pointer or not but mine does and that should NOT be used to set the position of the aperture. It does not project exactly where the bore is pointed and only used as a indoor training guide for practicing gun swing (like swinging across the line formed by the ceiling meeting a wall). I mention this because I have met one user and saw on a online video people using this as a sighting tool for the aperture setup... it is not tone used for this.

Mc Farmer, I guess you could use a bore sighter but I don't think when dealing with a shotgun and various patterns they shoot it does not need to be that exact.

One word of caution and I don't know if the new model has the laser pointer or not but mine does and that should NOT be used to set the position of the aperture. It does not project exactly where the bore is pointed and only used as a indoor training guide for practicing gun swing (like swinging across the line formed by the ceiling meeting a wall). I mention this because I have met one user and saw on a online video people using this as a sighting tool for the aperture setup... it is not tone used for this.

But they are used to get a rifle scope on paper, and like you say, that's close enough Shirley.

Lots of money for something that could be done with practice I suppose.

What percent of shots are you getting? I'm only getting around 50%. Last week we shot 100 like always and it only recorded 46 shots. I've made a few adjustments. Has not helped. Having said that, it has helped me identify a few problems.

I've only had it out 3 times so far. The first time out I got about 70%. The second time it kept going into sleep mode and not wanting to wake up, ended up getting about 40%. Last time out I changed some settings, it made it worse. I got the first pair at each station then it would not stop recording and I got garbled video for the rest of the station.From the limited video I've got so fat I have seen issues on both hits and misses. It looks like a good tool if I can get everything ironed out.

_________________"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed"

I can't help with figuring out how to make it be more consistent but when you set it up and are aligning the cursor, using a bore laser will give you better info. I've been the guinea pig shooter for my coach and his ShotKam and when I showed up with the laser to get the cursor in exactly the right spot, the info we got from watching the videos was much more useful!

Just turn it on, stick it in the gun and point it at something and align the cursor to the laser spot. It's accurate enough that you can point it at something only a few yards away. We laid the gun on a picnic table and had the laser pointed at a tree that was 6 or 8 yards away. Once it's aligned, it'll tell you exactly where your barrel(s) were pointed when you take a shot.

So, that begs this question. Should the crosshairs be aligned with the POA or the POI ? I would say point of aim, provided you know how that differs from the point of impact on a pattern board.

I had written off those less costly shell type lasers, but you seem to think they are adequate ? The ones I've been looking at are the $200 ones that go in the end of the barrel. Didn't care to spend that much.

I've got one of those chamber/bore sighter devices shown in the link above and it is more than adequate in accuracy for shotgun sighting in my experience.

The POA and POI should be the same, or within 2 or 3 inches for most guns. If not, then you've got a gun problem or barrel regulation problem.

I guess what I'm saying is that it shouldn't matter which you use... either the bore sighter or aiming down the rib. Either method should be plenty close enough for the Shotkam. The exception to this would be a shotgun that is set up to shoot perhaps 80% to 100% high for trap shooting. In this case, the shooter will have to decide for himself whether he wants to adjust the Shotkam reticle to coincide with his POA or the POI.

_________________Please post For Sale items in the proper Classified section.

Semi-Auto Classifieds is ONLY for Complete Semi-Auto shotguns.Over/Under Classifieds is ONLY for Complete O/U shotguns.Items other than a complete shotgun go in OTHER Classifieds.